I am going to be installing a 7 way in the bed of the truck and was wondering if anyone had any good suggestions on how to go about doing it.

 

Best, easiest and cleanest way:


On Klenger.net

 

7 Way???? Wow.. might get a little tireing... Make sure they are all cuties...

 

I dropped the spare tire and spliced into the wire harness with a piece of 7-wire trailer cable. All my splices were soldered and heat-shrinked.

 

Don't know if you have a four prong plug in the rear along with the 7-way? I know on the wife's 04 and my 06 that they have them. But I cut the 4 prong off wired it into the 7 way so the only wires that needed spliced were the brake wires. Ran the plug up the left rear bed corner, has enough clearance for the tailgate to close, and you don't have to reach over the bed rail to connect or disconnect it (virses having the plug in the front corner).

 

I just did mine...I mounted it just above the wheelwell, IN the sheet metal...No brackets, real clean Ran the cable inside the fenders...I already cut 3 holes in the bed, whats one more I used the Klenger link above to do my wiring.....

 

I couldn't find the adapter. I bought a socket with pig tails at Wal Mart. Mounted it right in front of the post on left side rear easily reached from the open tailgate. Went underneath, opened up the wire protector, bared each wire and soldered into the wire. Covered it with a water proofing liquid seal, taped when dry, recovered with the plastic protector and wrapped the pigtails with the same type plastic wire shield. Looks like factory. Total cost was the cost of the socket.
Bob

 

Was in the RV Store,

There is a '9' way plug/socket (new?)
Has 2 large contacts for power and ground

Ground is longer, I think to ground the trailer
before voltage pin contacts.

Looks very well made..

 

Mine is identical.

 

Thats how mine is done too, just a bit further forward in the bedside.

 

I wish I had known about that Kengler deal. I bought a kit from MOPAR that was pricey. It was made to convert a 4-prong factory truck to a 7 prong. I pluged into the 4-prong just behind the facotry bumper mounted 7 prong. The other three wires I spliced into by soldering splicing and heat shrinking it was a clean job but could have been better. I even called Pollack who made the 7-pin connector for MOPAR they stated they made the hole deal to be sold as an accessory through Mopar performance parts and MOPAR refused to deal it. So I gave up and did it the hard way. Glad to see someone went ahead and made the right deal.

 

If you don't want to open the wiring harness to the elements and believe me if you open it, sooner or later its going to get wet.

Go to a RV Supply store and buy a 6ft pigtail with the seven way on one end.
Buy the bed connector. Make the hole were you want it. Run the bare end from the pigtail up to the hole and wire the bed plug. Secure it to the underside of the truck and your done.

Mine has been there for almost 5 years now. It stays plugged in all the time unless I'm pulling the boat or another trailer.

See my photo album and there is a picture of the pigtail plugged in to the truck. The other end just goes up to the bed plug.

Dave

 

Hey Dave, thats sounds easy enough, but it still doesn't address the problem of the 14 guage power and ground wire.

I have a camper and I would have to run a 10ft pigtail to get it all the way to the front of the bed.

Some guys were saying that wire was to light for running the refer and charging the batteries.

I also noticed that the klenger site had no provision for this.

Just curious if others are concerned or if I'm being ****

...........Jim

 

The pigtail I used is the has the same size wire in it as the truck and the trailer connector.

It is true with DC voltage, the longer the run the bigger the wire to keep from loosing voltage. You may have to come directly off your vehicle battery(s) to a marine type on off switch close to the battery, and from there, the size wire would be determined by the draw of the equipment on the other end and the distance.

If you can give me the length of run in this case and the load factor I can provide the info on the wire size. Or, you can go to ABYC (American Boat and Yacht Council) Rules to determine this in one of their tables.

ADDED Since Post;

Examples

10ft Run of wire 5amps 14 AWG
15amps 14 AWG
20amps 12 AWG
25amps 10 AWG

Same for 15 feet of wire, sizes start to increase at 20ft or greater.


My e-mail address is shown in the public record on this site.

Dave

 

That is why I spliced into the harness. I tapped off of all the wire for the lights, and trailer brake, but ran a 10 gauge wire from the battery to the 7-way in the bed and also a 10 gauge ground as well.